I use Parallels both at work and home. I do not have any experience with Fusion, so cannot comment on it. Parallels works really well for applications such as Office and non-gaming applications, and seems to run nearly as fast as typical PCs. (It's light speed compared with the old Virtual PC.) A nice thing about Parallels is that you do not have to partition your HD to install it, however, if you do have a Boot Camp partition with Windows installed, Parallels can use that too. Then you have the best of both worlds, reboot for best performance or run in virtualization for most convenience. There is a mode in Parallels (called “coherence”) that makes the Windows desktop transparent. You see the Windows taskbar at the bottom, Mac menubar at the top, and the Mac dock under Windows or at the side. I pin mine to the side. All running applications, including Windows applications, are shown in the Mac dock and you can switch between them just like Mac applications. You can also operate in single window or full screen mode for a Windows look and feel (Ugh!).<br><br>If you're not into Windows server management, workgroups, and file encryption, you probably don't need XP Professional. Compare list of features -> here<br><br>Who serves his fellows, is of his fellows greatest - Chingachgook (by legend) <br><br>Scout

_________________________Who serves his fellows, is of his fellows greatest - Chingachgook (by legend)Scout

The good thing is parallels and fusion both have trial versions available. Download them and give em a shot. At the moment, I prefer VMWare Fusion ...but in reality they both do almost the EXACT same thing. Fusion just utilizes multiple CPUs/Cores and parallels doesn't ....although I have heard from a Parallels rep that called our office that they are getting ready to release a new version in a couple months or so. It will probably add that feature. <br><br>zweisoft<br>

You people were ALL very helpful and I want to thank you for the assistance in making up my mind. Great group! I can't wait to get it finished and play around. Anyone know of a web page offering OEM Win XP Home edition cheap[est]? A reliable one? I found several but am not sure about them. I use to get a lot of SPAM offering unbelievably cheap software.<br><br>Mike,<br><br>I've decided I don't need the full-blown, includes the kitchen sink Win XP Pro. The home version will be enough. I have no means of getting the educational version so I'll have to go with commercial edition. The OEM offering web pages I've looked at: How can I be sure they are not rip off places?<br><br>Bigger,<br><br>I am going with Boot Camp. Your input was really helpful.<br><br>Donna,<br><br>Good to know you're using Boot Camp and I guess pleased with the results other than the keyboard issue.<br><br>"F"[sm]<br><br>Didn't know what Ubuntu was so looked it up and read about it. Hope you get yours working as you want it to work soon.<br><br>Scout,<br><br>Comparing them showed me I don't need Pro. Thanks for that and also the comment about speed over old VPC. I used it years ago and it was practically worthless! Your first hand 'look' at how they appear on the Mac screen was helpful too. Thanks for the input.<br><br>Zwei,<br><br>The products appear to be close in 'features' and 'functioning'. They just have small things that make them useful to different people for different reasons. I'm too chicken to try out the free trial periods of them though.<br><br><br><br>

I use boot camp as well ...it's a fairly simple setup procedure. One thing you might want to know ...when you format the partition Windows is going on you may want to do what I did and choose FAT32 over NTFS. If you go with FAT32 the drive will show up on your OS X desktop and you can read/write to it. If you format it as NTFS you will have to copy things from one to the other via flash drive, or CD, etc. Although, you can't make the partition very big at with FAT32 ...not that I think you would need to. I'm pretty sure 32GB is the max size for a FAT32 drive. I have a 14GB partition myself. <br><br>zweisoft<br>

Kate,<br><br>I don't know whether to raise this flag or not. When I received my copy of Parallels in 2006 (ordered with my iMac), there was a statement in the printed manual inside the box that said in System Requirements (p.16) "a full (not OEM) version of the operating system you wish to install." This requirement was not printed on the box, nor listed on the Parallels website, nor in the downloadable User manual. I sent a note to Parallels tech support asking whether it was an old limitation. The answer was "Sometimes OEM version of WindowsXP can not install on the VM created by PD4MAC. It is not some limitation of Parallels, but WindowsXP. OEM are made for certain computer type and this is sometimes checked during installation. So I recommend to order the Windows XP Home Edition Full."<br><br>I had already ordered a copy of Windows so everything would arrive together, and OEM was the cheapest. Without experimenting, I changed my order to the full version. So, if you have Windows already installed for Boot Camp, you may be OK. Otherwise, you might consider this. Maybe check with Parallels tech support to see if it is still valid, or maybe someone here has direct experience. As I say, I wasn't sure whether to raise the flag or not.<br><br>By the way, I had ordered XP from this place. I had found them by doing a search for cheapest on the OEM version, but they also had a reasonable price on the full version, and excellent service.<br><br>Good luck.<br><br><br>Who serves his fellows, is of his fellows greatest - Chingachgook (by legend) <br><br>Scout

_________________________Who serves his fellows, is of his fellows greatest - Chingachgook (by legend)Scout

I went to your link and found this:<blockquote> <br>â€¢ Notes for Mac Users<br>If you want to install Windows XP on an Intel-based Appleï¿½ computer, you can use this software, or any 32-bit edition of Windows Vista or Windows XP (with SP2 on the installation disc) by using Apple's Boot Camp technology. However, OEM editions, like this one, will not work with Parallels. </blockquote><br><br>That OEM version will not work with Parallels.<br><br>http://www.royaldiscount.com/miwixpprosp21.html [color:red]Free shipping</font color=red><br><br>If no one else chimes in with different info, I think if I use Boot Camp and buy this software all should be okee doakee . . . <br><br><br><br>

Found XP Home Full Version at my cited site for 9 bucks more than yours [free shipping]<br><br>It sez: <blockquote>Microsoft Windows XP Home<br><br>This is a full version, so installing it will require a hard drive format or a blank hard drive. It will install on either a PC or an Intel-based Apple computer with Boot Camp, but not with Parallels. The Certificate of Authenticity is attached to the shrinkwrap. Do not lose this; it contains the product key.</blockquote><br><br>That and boot camp.<br><br><br><br><br><br>

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